Government Proposals for Powering our Net Zero Future in the UK – the single largest new development that our industry has faced?

John Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors (APHC), will be considering the outline strategy presented by Government in its Energy White Paper – Powering Our Net Zero Future in relation to heating in our homes.

The session will cover the following topics in relation to the vision set out in the Energy White Paper with a significant emphasis on the significant changes required in the ways in which our homes are heated:

The Government vision for heating our homes

Further Government consultations that are to be initiated during 2021

What installation businesses in our industry need to play their part in shaping Government policy

In June 2019, legislation was passed requiring the Government to reduce the UK’s net emissions of greenhouse gases by 100% relative to 1990 levels by 2050. This updated previous legislation detailed in the Climate Change Act 2008 of an 80% target in the reduction of greenhouse gases over 1990 levels by 2050. The overall aim being to keep global warming to below a 2°C increase by the turn of the century in line with the 2016 Paris Agreement which the UK has signed up to and so minimise potentially damaging effects on the planet and those who inhabit it.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) who advise the UK Government has identified that the UK is not presently capable of delivering the 80% target let alone the revised and more onerous target of 100% net zero carbon by 2050. Whilst there have been some significant successes in recent years in relation to carbon reduction in areas such as power generation, there is significant work to do in other areas such as the way in which we use energy in buildings – specifically our homes.

In November 2020, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson released his ten-point plan for a Green Industrial Revolution with the aim of further moving on the net zero target. This was followed up in December 2020 by the detailed Energy White Paper – Powering our Net Zero Future.